Tuesday, June 29, 2010

P-Rays Unable to Hold Off Late Rally, Fall 7-3 to Pulaski

The Princeton Rays fell to the Pulaski Mariners 7-3 on Monday night at Hunnicutt Field.

Pulaski took the lead in the fourth inning. Derek Poppert singled home Jorge Agudelo to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

The Mariners added to their lead in the fifth inning. Jake Schlander reached on an error to get things started. Agudelo then singled to right, scoring Schlander and giving the Mariners a 2-0 lead.

The Rays battled back to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kevin Kiermaier led off the inning with a walk. Kiermaier later scored on a single by Scott Lawson. Alejandro Segovia doubled to left to score Lawson and tie the ball game. Segovia would then score on a double by Hector Guevara to take a 3-2 lead.

The Rays held the lead until the top of the eighth inning when the Mariners struck for five runs. They used small ball to get the runs across, combining walks and singles to load the bases and push the runs across. The Rays could not counter in the final frames as they took a 7-3 loss.

Andrew Bellatti walked away with a no-decision in his second start of the year, pitching 6 innings and allowing 2 unearned runs on 5 hits with 5 strikeouts. Brad Furdal suffered the loss, pitching 1 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on no hits with 2 walks. Garrett Carruth pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, surrendering 3 runs on 3 hits with a strikeout and a walk.

The two clubs face off again on Tuesday night from Hunnicutt Field. Braulio Lara (0-1, 8.31) will pitch against George Mieses (0-0, 4.50).